The Wizeline team conducted its first Chatbot Survey to assess how US consumers use and anticipate innovations in chatbot technology.

Wizeline surveyed over 1000 adults in the United States to gain insights about how companies can adapt conversational UI to meet customer expectations. As organizations evaluate their chatbot product strategy, there are several ways that chatbots can engage users with highly tailored experiences.

Purchasing through a chatbot The survey uncovered several consumer insights when it comes to purchasing via chatbot. Millennials, particularly men, are a key demographic for making purchases via chatbot. Compared to individuals 60 and older, millennials are almost 2X more likely to make a purchase via a chatbot. Almost 1 in 4 chatbot users say they feel comfortable making a purchase in a chatbot compared to only 1 in 20 general consumers.

The big difference between “assistant” and “chatbot” Brands have a great opportunity to attract new users by integrating voicebots into their conversational UI platform. To do so successfully, they must pay attention to wording, specifically “assistant” over “chatbot”. 1 in 3 consumers who reported never having used a bot have actually used a connected home device or digital assistant, indicating preconceptions about bots.

Women also showed a preference to a voice-activated digital assistant over other kinds of conversational AI. On the whole, men reported that they’re more comfortable with emerging conversational AI technologies. Voice-activated conversational commerce is still an emerging technology, but it’s one that organizations should invest in to improve adoption rates for all users.

Who favors the chatbot experience? Chatbots offer brands the opportunity to deliver highly tailored experiences to each customer. Where seniors are more likely to be satisfied with their experience, millennials are most likely to be more frequent bot users. Additionally, men are more likely than women to use bots.

Chatbots for customer support In general, consumers demonstrate less usage of chat-based support channels compared to chatbot users. Overall, consumers favor email (76%), phone (43%) and social media (29%) for providing feedback to companies or brands. Those who use chatbots demonstrate a general preference for chat-based support options like online chat or text apps.

Using a chat app does not necessarily mean that users are ready to adopt chatbot technology for interacting with and providing feedback to brands. Among those who use chatbots, there’s a better chance those customers will also seek out other text-based channels to communicate their feedback.

Your company and chatbots Decide which audiences are most relevant for your brand and deliver the experiences they’ll enjoy. As UI evolves from visual to verbal, identify your product needs before adopting chatbot technology to address business needs.

The full report is available here if you’d like to read more. If you have questions or would like additional information, please be in touch and email theteam@wizeline.com.